By way of example of such a medicine dispenser that prepares a tablet medicine according to a prescription, there is a medicine dispenser which feeds required tablets from a tablet storing section having a plurality of tablet feeders to a tablet packaging section according to a prescription and packages the tablets one package at a time (see FIGS. 1 to 3 in Patent Document 1). Further, there is another medicine dispenser wherein a tablet storing section comprises the tablet feeders arranged in a shape of a shelf step and, similarly to the aforesaid medicine dispenser, required tablets are fed from the tablet storing section to a tablet packaging section according to a prescription and then is packaged one package at a time (see FIG. 6 in Patent Document 2).
In the aforesaid medicine dispenser, a tablet preparation section is provided between the tablet storing section and the tablet packaging section. The tablet preparation section keeps together tablets for one package and then feeds the tablets for one package to the tablet packaging section in a lump (see Paragraph [0051], lines 1 to 2, Paragraphs [0088] and [0101] to [0105] and FIGS. 11 to 15 in Patent Document 1).
Further, by way of example of the aforesaid tablet feeder, there is a tablet feeder wherein: a container for containing a large number of tablets houses a rotating rotor; receiving grooves (recesses) for receiving the tablets are formed in the rotor along an entire periphery of the rotor at equal spacing; along with the rotation of the rotor, the receiving groove receives the tablets in the container and moves the same in the rotation direction; and if the receiving groove faces to a discharge outlet, then the tablets in the receiving groove fall from the receiving groove to the discharge outlet one tablet at a time and thus the tablets are dispensed (see Patent Document 3).
Further, according to some prescription, a tablet to be taken one time may be a half tablet (the half of a tablet). In this case, it is necessary that a tablet cut and divided into halves in advance be set to the dispensing device and then be dispensed. By way of example of such a tablet divider, there is a tablet divider wherein a pair of belt conveyors sandwich a tablet and transfer the tablet downwardly and a rotary cutter divides the tablet in two halves during the transfer of the tablet (see FIG. 1 in Patent Document 4). Further, there is another tablet divider wherein a tablet is transferred to a tube and the tablet is stopped by a shutter and then divided in two halves by a cutter during the transfer of the tablet. Further, in said another tablet divider, the tablet piece of a lower half falls, while the tablet piece of an upper half is held on the cutter and then falls along with the retraction of the cutter (see FIG. 6 in Patent Document 5).
In the aforesaid tablet feeders, when the tablet is dispensed, a portion of the tablet chips or fragment powder is made due to friction. In particular, the feeder dividing the tablet creates powder when dividing the tablet. This is problematic since some medicine takers dislike these powders contained in a package bag for tablets. For this reason, there is a technique wherein a brush rakes powder particles at a halfway point of a dispensing passage from the rotor of the tablet feeder and discharges them through the discharge outlet (see Claim 3, Paragraph [0024] and FIG. 2 in Patent Document 6). Further, there is another technique wherein powder particles adhering to tablets are removed by suction or air blast in a tablet manufacture process or a tablet inspection process (see Abstract of Patent Document 7 and Abstract of Patent Document 8).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2009-100911    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2008-162609    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-59903    Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 2-29257    Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 11-226089    Patent Document 6: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-306430    Patent Document 7: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2008-200234    Patent Document 8: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2007-135982    Patent Document 9: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-63503